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Data Driven at NetApp Insight 2018

October 26, 2018 — NetApp held its Insight 2018 conference in Las Vegas this week for customers, partners and employees. A “Data Driven” theme was prevalent with a focus on how NetApp is empowering its customers to change the world with data. Keynotes and sessions fostered discussion on how organizations can innovate, transform and thrive with data.

IT leaders and influencers covered how the NetApp Data Fabric platform will enable cross-cloud data management and help to inspire innovation with cloud, build clouds that can accelerate new services and how cloud-connected flash can modernize IT architecture.

Going to big tech events like Insights for an engineer like myself is like being a kid in Disneyland. At this year’s Insight, there were more than 100 breakout sessions on NetApp solutions, tools, innovations and customer case studies. If there were only time to attend all of these, as well as the various keynotes, labs and networking sessions. With so much going on and so many new solutions presented, its easy to have a long list of highlights. Here below were a few of mine.

Solutions, Solutions, Solutions

NetApp announced over half a dozen new solutions at Insight and solidified its path to becoming an major player in cloud. The solutions that were unveiled will by and whole enable NetApp’s customers to accelerate in cloud and maintain a competitive edge in a fast-moving technology environment.

Below are three of the new solutions that I liked and some of their features and benefits.

In his memorable keynote address, NetApp CEO George Kurian covered what it means to be truly data driven by showcasing customer evidence of better business outcomes achieved with data. He noted that 12 year ago, only one out of the 10 biggest companies in the world were data driven. Today, it has risen to six of 10. He noted that companies who rise to become market leaders, such as Netflix and Uber, are highly data driven. In the era of digital transformation, data is the fuel. Kurian also cited studies NetApp has done that show that data driven companies have 3x increased profitability and 6x improved operational efficiency over companies that are not data driven.

Kurian noted three steps that organizations should take to become more data driven:

Another memorable keynote address was from one of the world’s most influential futurists, Gerd Leonhard. The appearance by Leonhard was hyped by NetApp as answering a couple of provocative questions: “In a world where technological progress is exceedingly exponential and combinatorial, how will we define what is human and what is not? What will humans do in the future and what will be done by technology?”

Leonhard delivered on the hype. He drove the point to the audience that although organizations might be increasingly becoming data driven and reliant on disruptive technology like artificial intelligence, the data driven future is still defined by humanity. AI robots and machines can’t replace creativity and emotional insight of humans.

Becoming Data Visionaries

NetApp Insights certainly aims to arm its attendees with the tools to become the data visionaries of their organizations. The company’s foray from being more than a storage company to becoming a player in multi-cloud and digital transformation will be an interesting and exciting journey to take to our own customers with solutions that will help them be more data driven.